


Observation

by Loremaiden



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV)
Genre: Community: watsons_woes, JWP Practice Prompt, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-23
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-31 22:27:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3995392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loremaiden/pseuds/Loremaiden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Moriarty takes the measure of Holmes' man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Observation

**Author's Note:**

> Written (belatedly) in response to the 2015 JWP Practice Prompt For May #2 (Recycling; or, The One That Got Away) on Watson's Woes. I chose JWP 2012 Prompt #13--Illness.

Sherlock Holmes was becoming a problem.

When Professor Moriarty was forced to abandon his February enterprise because of Holmes' interference, he then resolved to take the consulting detective seriously. And that required observation.

Not directly, of course. Holmes would obviously expect that. No, he chose to focus his initial efforts on his fellow lodger and partner of a decade, Doctor Watson.

The man Moriarty hired to observe the doctor was well-known in the Family as an expert in malingering. His performances of ill or dying men earned him a healthy profit from the powerful drugs he received and then resold to the highest bidder. He could have composed a definitive monograph on the subject if he wished. He was the ideal candidate to study the doctor in his professional element.

His furious report to the Professor of his reconnaissance mission was...illuminating.

The malingerer had donned his lucrative guise of a destitute man suffering from maladies typical of the lower classes to gain Watson's audience at his practice...and was in less than a quarter of an hour dismissed as a faker. He snarled to Moriarty of the sheer impertinence of it, that a lowly general practitioner was not taken in by a performance that had fooled a block of Harley Street specialists. But Watson had been taken in by his impoverished appearance, and to add insult to injury, the doctor handed him a few coins for a hot meal.

A small smile quirked Moriarty's mouth as he gave his agent ample compensation for his wounded pride, and dismissed him.

The actor thought his mission to be a failure, but the Professor considered it a success for what he learned of the character traits of Holmes' right-hand man.

The good doctor had knowledge—a strength to be cautious of.

But he also had compassion—a weakness to exploit.


End file.
